A few perspectives re: music and progression for SEN/ Disabled students:

 For many SEN/ Disabled students who follow the NC, ‘progress’ in Music is commonly more about the weekly battle to access provision at all, than wider discussions of levels and future plans. Students who do participate regularly in classroom and/ or instrumental lessons may find that their teachers struggle to accurately describe their progress and attainment or to signpost the next steps for them.

Assessing the musical development of children with complex needs has long been a fairly unexplored area of education in this country. In special schools in particular it is common for music to be taught by non-specialists who lack the confidence, planning time and resources to bring out the potential in their students. Equally, the existing ‘P levels’ for Music are limited in that they are not evidence based and so do not provide an ideal framework to assess by, nor in enough depth.

Last November, Drake Music invited disabled young people and musicians, their parents/ carers and also all those involved in music education to complete an online consultation about barriers to formal music education in England. Currently, my colleague Doug and I are sifting through the many responses we received and we plan to publish the findings of the consultation in the near future.

NB: This is my initial response to the National Plan, which I read for the first time today (25/11/11), in my role as DM Education Associate. Drake Music will issue a full response to the plan on our website early next week.

Since I began working for Drake in 2005, I can't remember a period of time where the musical needs of SEN/disabled students was so firmly on the agenda. We seem to have reached a 'tipping point' of sorts whereby conversations at every level around the future of music education feature this group as a matter of course.

The Introduction to Music course is now available! See the web page for details. Meanwhile, here's how it came about.

Act 1: We find ourselves in a (slightly creaky) portacabin in a special school in North Bristol...

On July 19, 2011, Oscar Pistorius clocked 45.07 in Lignano, thus qualifying for the world championships and the London Olympics.

First, Marc Jaffrey's recent article in Music Education UK magazine, then Mark Phillips (HMI Music inspector for Ofsted) at the recent FMS conference…the musical needs and aspirations of disabled/ SEN students are being discussed at the highest levels (it’s a bit like buses, you wait all day for one etc etc) And yet…my experiences at Drake Music are that the music education sector can go a bit quiet when it comes to discussing provision for this group.

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I recently had an interesting chat with another Drake Music associate about vintage equipment we have come across in various schools across the Bristol area (and a little bit beyond) Turns out there are some absolute gems out there e.g. how about this Casio CT-310 for starters (with original stand!) Also, an original early drum machine from the 1980s, Premier Olympic drum kits from the 1970s, even parts of a fantastic old piano.